Hades is distressingly co-dependent. Persephone makes do. Hermes checks in. Demeter rages. A series of poetic dialogues. (please note: i'm writing these as they occur to me, so chapters are going to be moved around to give the story some semblance of chronological order)

May I hold you?Would that I could feel the summer through your skinAnd the sunlight in your curls between my fingers.

You would only sap the last bit of earthy warmth from me, I fear.

Ah.You did not miss me then.

I tried not to think of you until your presence hung heavy on the trees and could not be ignored.

I'm sorry.

The whole world wept to see me go. My mother harvested her dying grain with vigor to hide her crying, her scythe flashing like a reprimand. I think she curses Zeus for making her forever a mother. I was loath to part from her—from them all really—and yet…

'And yet?'Why do you hesitate?Why do you smile in that secret wayWhen your half-life of happiness is over?Now you are with me,Who is wretched with longing for youAnd wretched with knowingI give you no joy.I have condemned you to the cold and darkWhen you belong with the sun,And yet your countenance is light enough?

It pleased me to know that the world and my mother would miss me. And it pleased me to know that you awaited my return. And for all the joy I had being in the sun and fresh air—surrounded by all that merry brightness—at times I was blinded and my skin burned and maybe I missed the coolness of your fingers on my brow.

You missed me?

I missed the calm and the quiet and the rock and your presence, which demands so little of me.

Do you love me then?

Does that really matter? I am content in the knowledge that wherever I am someone longs for me. And I have grown accustomed to your shadow.

Is that enough for you?

It is.

Then it is enough for me.

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